It is very obvious to many that we are losing competitiveness because of NEP. In the area of education and economics. We are shooting ourselves in the foot if we persist. Anwar Ibrahim reiterates here "NEP is OBSOLETE." Unfortunately asking for an end to such policies is like asking an end to the political party who started it...
AFP Malaysiakini,Jan 24, 08 3:08pm
A leading opposition figures today said the country was losing out economically to regional rivals because of long-running policies favouring ethnic Malays.Former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Malaysia's ability to attract foreign investment had been compromised by keeping the country's affirmative action policies in favour of the Malay majority."That policy is obsolete... We are losing our competitiveness. Malaysia is less competitive than the 1990s," Anwar, whose PKR party is formally led by his wife, told reporters in Hong Kong."Foreign investments, we have lost. Growth, we have lost. Attractiveness, which is key to an emerging market, is lost."Not to China and India, but to Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia because of our obsolete policies. If you persist in pursuing this agenda, you do it not only at the expense of the Chinese and the Indians, but also of the Malays."Malaysia has pursued the policies for Malays and indigenous groups known as bumiputeras since the 1970s to close a wealth gap with the minority Chinese community.In recent months, the government has been shaken by rare public demonstrations which erupted last November, including against alleged discrimination against Malaysia's ethnic Indians.
Religious controversies
Anwar added that Malaysia's creeping "Islamisation" was also turning away foreign investors.Malaysia has experienced a string of religious controversies in recent months.A Catholic newspaper was banned from using the word "Allah", or "God", in its Malay language section, while a Hindu woman lost her bid to stop the conversion of her child to Islam after Malaysia's highest court ruled that her now-Muslim husband can convert their elder son.Anwar was sacked from the former government of Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 1998 and then jailed for six years following sodomy and corruption charges.The sodomy charge was later overturned and Anwar was released but he is barred from public office or holding any position with a political party until April because of the corruption conviction.insist on going down this path.
1 comment:
ah the man is back with his incisive writing after a long absence.
undoubtedly, Malaysia is now longer on the radar screen of foreign investors unlike China, Vietnam, even Singapore. One has to ask why...
This is clearly a far cry from as recently as the mid-90s when Malaysia was one of the tigers of ASEAN. Are we then on a one-way downward slide ?
The NEP policies have many unintended side effects. A primary one is quite clearly a brain drain of non-bumi talent. A significant number of just our own cohort no longer calls Malaysia home (other than visiting our family and friends) - i can only imagine this scenario played out thru the years. At the end of the day, the human resource is critical to making the natural resource work.
the irony is that the end result is detrimental to all Malaysians and not any particular group as such. It will take a bold move and a bold leader to undo such a fundamental tenet of malaysian politics. however, without such a move, i fear that we may be on a slippery slope.
hm
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